Sow Now, Reap Later

Wednesday 29 November
READ: Psa. 126: 5 - 6    
MORE LESSON:  Lam. 3: 27

For every price in life there is a prize. It is wisdom to pay the price now so that you can obtain the prize tomorrow. If you need to sweat now so that you will not cry tomorrow, then it is good to sweat. A lot of people are looking for comfort too soon. A young person is supposed to be labouring so that he will not have to carry heavy load in the future. Lam. 3: 27 says that it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. However, a lot of young people want stress-free achievement. There is nothing substantial that is stress-free in life. In fact, it is good to be under pressure and stress while young so that you will enjoy your life later. Everyone knows that going to school is stressful but if you don't and there is nothing to fall back to later in life, then expect a greater type of stress. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of regrets. The pain of regret weighs tons more than the pain of discipline. It is when you take the pain to be disciplined now that you will not suffer the pain of failure and regrets in the future.

A fundamental principle of success is the law of delayed gratification. It is the law of sowing now so that you can reap in the future. This involves using your money, effort, time and resources in such a way that you can have a better life in the future. It means you undergo the difficulty now so that you can have it easier in the future. So if you cannot buy expensive wears now because you are buying books, getting certificates or building a business, you are indeed wise as you are sowing for a great harvest. There are people who spend all they have today as if there is no tomorrow. Don't enjoy today to the detriment of tomorrow; it is better to make sacrifices today so that you can reap benefits tomorrow.

Some people never invest for tomorrow and they claim that tomorrow will take care of itself. They think it is an act of faith to eat everything today and leave tomorrow to chance. Faith has never stood alone; faith walks with wisdom and it thrives by working. Investing for tomorrow includes being diligent, building capacity, making sacrifices and sowing seeds today so that they will give credence to your faith. It is good that you believe God for a good tomorrow but we must see the seeds you are sowing today which will bring the harvest of a good tomorrow. It is when we see the seeds of sacrifice today that we will know that you will surely reap the harvest of a glorious tomorrow. 

Prayer/Action
* Ask God for grace to put your flesh under control as the price for a great tomorrow.
* Pray that the pains of sacrifice to God will yield you mighty joy and harvest.
* Pray that Satan will not win the battle against your harvest.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Today, as November prepares to close, I receive grace like Elijah to overtake anyone who has gone ahead since the year of shining light began, in the mighty name of Jesus.

Rightside Up

Tuesday 28 November
READ: Luke 19:1-9    
MORE LESSON:  Phil. 3:9

Being born again is not just about going to church or being baptized. It is an experience. There is this story of a man who tried to grow spiritually before he was born again; he was born into a pagan family but grew up going to church. He went to a secondary school where he served as a leader in many Christian organizations, which made him believe that he was a Christian. But after it became very clear that he was not saved, he started drinking and doing many terrible things openly and without shame until he became very miserable.

Then one day as he was singing, he became convicted by the words of the songs. He knelt down, confessed his sins, then God began to change his life, and he got the assurance that he was truly saved. He immediately joined a group for Bible study, and started to learn more about the new life in Christ Jesus. He also began to share with others what Christ has done in his life.

Being saved or born again is not a theory or a story but a life changing experience. Confession without change is false. Have you seen any changes in your life? What are they? If none, then confess your sins afresh, ask for pardon, and the joy of salvation will bubble in your heart. Thereafter, a new life in Christ Jesus will begin immediately in you.
That is the right order of walking with God and not the other way round. Apostle Paul got it wrong early in life. He was religious but not born again:

Circumcised the eighth day, of the  stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal,  persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless: Phil. 3:5-6. He was not born again until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus (Act. 9: 1-8).
In contrast, Zacchaeus’ case was a different order; he came as a sinner to see Jesus. Then he had got an encounter, confessed his sins and received Jesus into his home and life. Please crosscheck today. Are you are religious or saved?

Prayer/Action
* Father, give me a new life, in Jesus' name.
* I receive the right spirit to serve God today, in the mighty name of Jesus.
* Dear Lord, reveal yourself to me in all that I do, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
I proclaim that the season of famine is over; I release my rain in abundance now, in the name of Jesus.

Balm of Gilead

Monday 27 November
READ: Jer. 8: 22 
MORE LESSON: Isa. 53: 4-5

The Lord is the great Healer. Where medical science fails, the Spirit of the Lord is able. As a covenant child of God, it is not you who should be a slave to sickness and a regular customer of the hospital. The Bible asks a question, is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there, why then is the health of the daughter of my people not recovered? Jer. 8: 22. Is it because there is no healing power in God that you have become a specimen for the medical lab? I curse every sickness in your body in Jesus’ name. Child of God, there is a balm in Gilead.

However, you must become desperate enough to come to God and demand His healing touch. Talking about desperation, after a healing service in church where several people were healed, a young lady came to meet me in the office, bringing some other people along. She told me that she had a sore on both sides of her thigh and that the sore had been there for six years. When people become desperate, they forget about decorum, she came with people but she said she wanted to show me the excruciating sore.  I told her that was not part of what I wanted to see, but she was crying and pleading that I had to see it. I refused, so she brought out her phone and said she would show me the picture. I said I was not interested in that as well, so she started crying helplessly in front of the people present. She had gone to hospitals and there was no help for her. She only stopped sobbing when I told her that I didn't need to see it before the great Physician would heal her.

Under the unction of the Holy Ghost, I asked her to sit down, stretch her two legs and open her two hands on her laps. After a while, she screamed. I was surprised as everyone else, I had not even prayed. The truth is that she had never been able to sit like that for years and immediately she sat that way, the boils burst. I didn't know that the altar that afflicted her carried a taboo, and the taboo was the sitting position she just assumed. She got relieved and her healing came immediately.

Today, an end has come to every anti-covenant activity that has brought sickness into your life. I apply the balm of Gilead to every source of pain in your body and I command that your health speedily appear, in Jesus’ name. As the Lord lives whom I serve, every altar that speaks sickness to you is swallowed by the fire of the Holy Ghost, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God to heal you of any sickness, physical or spiritual, in Jesus’ name.
* Declare with confidence, “By His stripes I am healed”, in Jesus’ name.
* Reject any negative report over your health and claim your healing, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Every power that says my time of release has not come, die by fire today, in the name of Jesus.

It is by Grace

Sunday 26 November
READ: Rom. 11: 5 – 6   
MORE LESSON: Rom. 9: 15 – 16

A highly respected servant of God once told us that if God were to make a choice based on qualification, it shouldn't have been him. All of us were stunned because we actually saw him as a person that was high in the esteem of God and man. But he told us that his mother was not the first wife in his father's house, and so by biblical implication, he was born in adultery. If God was to choose by human qualification, He wouldn't have chosen him. He also said that he borrowed shoes to graduate in secondary school. So if God's election was to be by a good financial  background, he would not have qualified. He is great and highly placed today by the grace of God.

I have also found that the highest qualification of man does not impress God. It is only who He decides to have mercy on. Being chosen and distinguished by God does not leave room for human pride; it is not the making of man. It is by the election of God's grace (Rom. 11: 5 -6). No man should take credit for the work of God in his life because he can’t pay for it, neither is it because of his capacity; it is the gift of God. Today, be like-minded, that whatever God is doing through you or has given you, you should not brag about it. After all, ...who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? 1 Cor. 4:7 (NKJV).

It is foolish for a man to go around in pride because God is using him. God's power and grace on any man is a gift that  God put there. Some people are proud of being 'Men of God', forgetting that the man is not important, it is the God behind the man that matters. Take the God away, and the man becomes nothing. Today, whatever God has helped you to achieve or is helping you to do, I want you to maintain a humble posture and not see yourself as more spiritual or better than others around. Recognise that it is only by His mercy and grace that you are who you are. It is because God delights in you that He elected you to stand in that place. Do not give in to pride because if you do, the delight of God will be turned away and that favour will be removed and you will realise that on your own, you are nobody. I pray earnestly that God will never move His grace from your life, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer/Action
* Pray that grace will lift you above every high standard, in Jesus’ name.
* Pray that God will not forbid His grace from increasing in your life, in Jesus’ name.
* Ask God to help you live a life of humility, in Jesus’ mighty name.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
As the Lord ordered the release of the donkey (Mk 11:1-10) because he needed it, so I declare my own release today from everything tying me down because the Lord needs my life for His glory, in the name of Jesus.